I'll be coaching tonight during the game, so here are a couple things to look for to identify if they are still using the overload coverage...

1) Both D and the C are in the corner with one on the puck, a 2nd on top of the opposition's support player, and the other in a position between those two, his man, and the net.

2) You see the weak side wing (wing furthest away from the puck) sagging down to cover the slot (net front). This is part of the coverage when the 2nd D overloads the area around the puck.

I'm betting they still use it, but play more of the traditional "Box + 1" and use the overload only when the opponent is pinned in the corner or along the half wall...

I hope this is what they end up doing. I happen to like the overload system, but i think it is a little more complicated with respect to assignments and the weak side forward has to be super defensively responsible which has not always happened in our games to date.

I particularly like the system when the puck carrier has his back to the net and may have trouble picking up the possible double.

Last year the preds would start with that box and one but it would eventually start to look very man on man to me and I thought it led to some problems breaking the cycle. The overload is the right counter to that, but i don't like when a team uses it exclusively just to avoid predictability.

If the preds learn it to an acceptable degree, I think it will be better for the team in the long run. Now if we could only get our offense going. Thanks for the interesting comments.